The Lettuce Matchmaker
by IndigoBlue Violet
Summary: What happens when Ino, Naruto and Hinata decide to make a love potion to bring Sasuke and Sakura together? What if the things don't go well as planned? Well, blame the blondes for that! Major SasuSaku, mild NaruHina and slight ShikaIno.


_**The Lettuce Matchmaker**_

_**Summary: What happens when Ino, Naruto and Hinata decide to make a love potion to bring Sasuke and Sakura together? What if the things don't go well as planned? Well, blame the blondes for that! Major SasuSaku, mild NaruHina and slight ShikaIno.**_

**(A/N): Finally..! My first fanfic! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

Early morning, as the sun rose in the sky, all the people of Konoha started to get up. Well, except for the members of Team 7 who were waiting at the bridge for their sensei. Sakura was talking with Sai, asking him about his recent ROOT mission and also about the current book he was reading. Sai and Sakura were having just a light, casual talk. Sasuke was watching Sakura smiling along with Sai, glaring at him. Naruto looked at Sasuke, then Sakura and then back to Sasuke.

"Hey Teme, go talk to her." Naruto said, approaching Sasuke.

"Get lost, dobe." Sasuke said and looked the other way. But Naruto, being Naruto didn't give up on him.

"Come on Teme, everybody knows you like her. Stop being such a cat and ask her out already."

Just then, Kakashi appeared in front of them. Everyone stopped talking and looked at him. "Hey kids, the Hokage needs me on a mission, so it seems u have no training for entire week. Ja-ne." and with that he disappeared again. Naruto turned to his right to talk to Sasuke again, but he was long gone. He looked left and saw receding figures of Sai and Sakura walking different ways, to their respective houses.

"Guess I'll be going to Ichiraku alone. Let me ask Hinata-chan to come to Ichiraku with me" with that the fox-boy ran to find the Hyuuga girl.

Naruto found Hinata at Yamanaka flower shop. The lavender-eyed girl was helping Ino with the arrangement of newly arrived flowers. Naruto barged into the shop with a goofy grin and greeted the two.

"Hey Ino, Hinata-chan. How you guys doing? Wanna join me for ramen?"

"We're great, Naruto-kun. Just little busy with these new flowers. Maybe if you help us, we all can go to Ichiraku later." Hinata told her boyfriend.

"Anything for you, my sweetheart." Naruto said giving a flirty grin. Hinata blushed.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Get to work you two. Save that for your date later." With that, the trio started the work.

"Ne Ino-san, I've never seen these kinds of flowers. What are they exactly?" the Hyuuga mistress asked.

"Oh these, they are called Arbutus. They mean 'You are the only one I love'. I hope Shika-kun gives me those someday." said Ino with dreamy eyes.

"B any chance, do you have 'I-love-you-Sakura-but-I-have-a-big-pole-up-my-ass-to-admit-that' flowers? Sasuke could really use those. You guys have no idea how he stares at her. Too bad Sakura-chan decided to move on." stated Naruto.

Ino's eyes widened. "Naruto, are you serious? Oh my God, this is the best news of the day. Uchiha loves her? You have no idea how Forehead rants about how much difficult it is for her to ignore Uchiha and pretending that she's over him."

"That means Sakura-san is in love with Sasuke-sama and Sasuke-sama loves Sakura -san, and both are oblivious to one another's feelings." Hinata piped in.

"That means they just need a little push towards each other. Hey Ino, do you have any flowers or stuff to make this happen?" Naruto looked towards Ino only to find her immersed in a giant old book.

"Aha, here it is. _Primrose love potion__. Intake causes increase in oxytocin level resulting in increased feeling of love and trust. _This is it, guys. We have to make this potion. I know this will work. We need Purple Golden-Eyed Primrose for this. They grow in India. I will order them today itself!"

Naruto and Hinata could only stare at her as she ran to get the directory.

Come evening. Sakura decided to visit her best friend and stopped by the Yamanaka flower shop. "Wow Ino-pig, the new flowers are really good. This place looks better than ever."

"Thanks Forehead, but there are more to come. I've ordered a special batch of flowers from India. They'll reach here by tomorrow. Oh, did I tell you? Shika-kun asked me out this afternoon. Isn't that great? I'm so happy today." Ino exclaimed while bouncing up and down with joy.

For a split of a second, Sakura's eyes showed hurt. 'I wonder if Sasuke-kun will ever ask me out.' But she quickly changed her thoughts. Ino was happy with Shikamaru and even she was happy for both of them. She gave Ino a big goofy grin and bounced with her. But her expressions didn't go unnoticed by her best friend. After a short chat, Sakura decided to leave. As she exited the door, Ino watched her intently. 'You can't fool me Forehead. I swear I will get you and Uchiha together.'

The next day, Naruto and Hinata both reached Yamanaka flower shop in the morning. To their delight, the Primroses had just arrived. The beautiful purple flowers were magnificent. All the three stared at them with awe.

"The Purple Golden-Eyed Primrose. Primrose symbolizes eternal love. Now we have just the right ingredient for the potion." With that the blonde beauty started the preparations for making the potion.

About an hour or so, she had almost completed making it. "And now, the special ingredient; a few petals of the primrose. Naruto, can you please fetch them? I kept the plant in the 'Rare Flowers' section."  
Naruto happily skipped to the said section, but suddenly stopped.

.

He blinked.

.

There were two purple-flowered plants.

'Which one did Ino need? I guess I'll just choose one of them. Let's see. Inky-pinky-ponky, Father had a-'

"NARUTO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THERE?"

Startled Naruto quickly grabbed few purple petals from a plant and ran back to Ino. Smiling, Ino put them in the love potion and stirred it. Then she read in the book.

_The potion is sweet to taste, making it easier to ingest. Can be used as a topping or icing._

"Oh, just great! This stuff is sweet. Sasuke won't even touch it. I guess we'll just have to give it to Forehead" sighed Ino.

"I made cookies this morning. Maybe we could top them up with the potion and give them to Sakura-san" Hinata suggested.

"Good idea Hinata. You take the potion and give it to Sakura to eat. Then bring her to the bridge. Naruto, you go to the Uchiha. Woo him to the bridge. Today is the day they confess their love for one another" Ino's eyes burned like Lee's and along with the sunset background scene, Ino flashed the perfect guy pose. Naruto and Hinata sweat-dropped.

Hinata walked towards the hospital with potion-icing coated cookies in her hand. She reached Sakura's cabin. It had a bold 'Dr. Sakura Haruno' written on it. 'Soon it will be Uchiha' thought Hinata while entering.

Sakura was beyond overjoyed to see Hinata. Hinata offered her cookies, which she happily accepted. They had a long chat. 'These cookies are sour' thought Sakura but ignored the thought. After a while, she started to feel dizzy. And then, she collapsed right in front of Hinata.

Naruto approached the Uchiha complex to find Sasuke. He found him in the lawn, training as usual. "Hey Teme, let's go to the bridge. We'll have a spar."

"What makes you think I'll spar with you? I have better things to do."

"Come on Teme. Besides, Sakura-chan will be there too." Naruto wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Hn." Sasuke groaned as they both started heading for the bridge.

Hinata splashed a bit of water on Sakura's face. She slowly regained consciousness.

"Are you ok Sakura-san?"

"I am fine, Hinata. You were saying something about the bridge, right? Let's go there." Sakura said while getting up and reaching the door. Hinata gave a questioning look but followed her nonetheless.

Naruto and Sasuke were the first to reach. "Looks like we are early. Let's spar, Teme." said Naruto, kunai ready in hand, running towards Sasuke. Sasuke drew out his katana, taking his stance.

Sakura and Hinata arrived soon, to see both the boys sparring and panting heavily. One of the Naruto's shadow clones saw Sakura. Suddenly, all of them disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving the real Naruto behind. "Sakura-chan!" shouted the fox-boy as he jumped directly in front of her, crashing her in a bear-hug. "Dobe" muttered Sasuke putting back his katana.

"Hi, Naruto. Fancy meeting you here." Sakura said with a bright smile. "What are you doing with _him?_" Sakura's eyes narrowed as she stared at a certain Uchiha. "Hey you, Uchiha, what are you doing here? This is _our_ training spot. Go find your own" Sakura yelled at him with a frown.

Naruto and Hinata stood there dumb-folded. "Wasn't Sakura-chan supposed to run into Teme's arms?" Naruto whispered to Hinata. "Let's go ask Ino-san. She is the only one who knows what happened just now." said Hinata and pulled Naruto along with her to go see Ino.

"You stepped into our grounds, Uchiha. You can't leave without getting beaten." said Sakura, putting her gloves. "You won't last" smirked Sasuke while drawing out his katana. "How dare you, Uchiha!" yelled the cherry-blossom, charging at him.

"What do you mean Uchiha and Forehead are fighting?" exclaimed Ino, once again immersed into the giant book.

"Maybe something went wrong with the potion?" Hinata asked unsure. "That's impossible. We put primroses into it. They are the strongest love-inducing flowers. They won't do wrong. Unless…."

Realization dawned to Ino as she tried to recollect earlier incidence. "Naruto, show me the plant whose petals you took."

Naruto quickly guided as the two maidens followed him to the 'rare flowers' section. Naruto pointed to the purple-flowered plant with a smug look.

.

BOINK!

.

Naruto had a huge swelling on his head, with an anime styled tear-stained face. Ino stood there with a fisted hand and a vein popping her forehead. Hinata stood there, wide-eyed.

"You baka! Can't you differentiate between a primrose and a purple lettuce? Haven't you eaten a lettuce before?" Ino scolded him with a devious look, showing her razor-sharp shark teeth and saliva drooling her mouth.

Naruto sat in his emo-corner with a dark emo-cloud hovering over him. "How should I know? I eat nothing except ramen." he said, sulking. Hinata and Ino fell down anime-style.

"Let's forget it now. The damage is done. We should try to think on how to undo the effect of potion." said Hinata with an optimist approach. "Leave that to wizard Ino." Ino boasted as she immersed into her book once again.

CLING.

CLANG.

The sound of metals hitting each other was only thing that could be heard. Both of them combated each other with lightening speed.

CLANG.

Kunai hit the katana. "Tired, Uchiha?" Sakura said with a devious grin. "Not even a bit" smirked Sasuke and both of them drew apart. Suddenly, a high-pitched chirping sound was heard. Sasuke's blade showed blue lightening dancing around it. "Chidori!" yelled Sasuke, charging at Sakura. Sakura quickly made hand signs and poofed away, a log replacing her place; just as the Sasuke's blade hit the log. Sakura reappeared few feet away from him. She quickly turned around, her hands glowing blue as she fisted them down on the ground. "Kyaaa!" she yelled as the ground shattered, consuming the unaware Sasuke into it. She smirked with satisfaction.

Just as she stood up, a hand reached from the ground, pulling her inside. "Earth style: Headhunter jutsu" yelled Sasuke as he rose out of the ground, burying Sakura completely into the ground, keeping only her head above. Sasuke bend down to face Sakura. "Looks like you lost, Pinky." he said with a smug look. "In your dreams, Uchiha" said Sakura as she turned into a storm of cherry blossom petals which floated past Sasuke and Sakura reappeared behind him. "I'm not called Konoha's cherry blossom for nothing" she said, smirking.

"Oh damn, I find nothing useful in this book." whined Ino. "It only says that _The effect of the potion wears off in time. Exercising hastens the wearing-off effect._ You guys said that Forehead and Uchiha are fighting, right? It means the effect should wear off soon. Let's go to the bridge." said Ino, getting up. Naruto and Hinata joined her. They ran towards the bridge.

Sakura and Sasuke were panting heavily. They had dangerously low chakra levels, but both refused to give up.

CLING. The blades clashed. "Tell me Sakura, why you hate me so much?" asked Sasuke genuinely. They both retracted.

CLANG. Another clash. "How could I not, Sasuke. After all that you put us through, you expect us to forget it?" They stayed in the same position, looking in each other's eyes. "I had loved you Sasuke. Since forever. And what you did? You hurt my feelings, left me on a bench just for some pedo-snake. You tried to kill Naruto. You were so lost in your revenge that you didn't notice the people who loved you. And even now, after coming back you still failed to notice the care and love we all gave you. You failed to notice Naruto's brotherly warmth and care for you. You failed to notice my undying love for you. U failed to notice everything." Sakura retracted back, with tear-stained face. Whatever she said was all she had been holding in her heart since long. It was all coming out at that moment. Her emotions were tormenting her mind. "And that's why I hate you Uchiha." Her eyes showed anger. "You've hurt us long enough. Now it's your turn. You deserve this." Sakura's hands started to glow blue with chakra as she ran towards him to punch him. Sasuke just stood there, as all the words immersed into his mind. He didn't dare move, he deserved it alright. Her hand was just inches away from him, when the blue glow suddenly disappeared. Sakura's head started feeling heavy and all she could see was a fading image of Sasuke. She collapsed onto him and Sasuke swiftly caught her in his arms.

"Oh no, Sakura!" yelled Ino as they reached the fighting spot. The three had reached just about when Sakura collapsed into Sasuke's arms. Ino hurried towards them and told Sasuke to make her lie down. Ino's hands glowed green as she checked for any abnormalities. Sakura's head was resting on Sasuke's lap. Naruto and Hinata noticed the concerned look on Sasuke's face. They couldn't help but smile at the warm and caring side of Sasuke they saw. Naruto extended his hand and held Hinata's hand, fingers intertwining. Hinata smiled and rest her head on Naruto's shoulder.

"Lack of chakra caused her to pass out. She just needs to rest. I'll take her to her home. You guys can see her tomorrow. Uchiha, I suggest you go rest too. Even your chakra reserves are low." Ino said. "Hn." Sasuke looked at Sakura for the last time before getting up and leaving.

Sakura woke up next day to find herself in her bedroom. Yesterday's memories filled in. She blushed. 'Did I really confess to Sasuke? Oh god, what have I done? He must be laughing at me now. How do I face him?' With fearful mind, she got out of the bed and did her daily chores. She didn't dare leave out of the house. Last thing she wanted was to bump into a certain Uchiha.

It was evening when her doorbell rang. Hoping it was Ino, Sakura eagerly opened the door. What she didn't expect was the chicken-butt haired boy standing at her door. "Please Sakura, I need to talk" he pleaded. She allowed him to come in and offered him some tea. After having tea, Sasuke faced Sakura to speak. "Sakura, I came to apologize to you. I've hurt you so much. I never realized it until now. I was so selfish, so drowned in my revenge that I never did care about the people who loved me. After my parents died, I assumed that no one will ever love me. But I was wrong, Sakura. You and Naruto were always there for me. I just never could see that. I'm sorry for not returning your feelings Sakura, I truly am…"

"It's ok, Sasuke. If you don't love me back, it's fine. We can just go back pretending you didn't hear it and everything will be nor-mff-" Sakura was cut off by Sasuke's lips. She couldn't believe THE Sasuke was kissing her. She was shocked, but then melted into the kiss. It was gentle, not too harsh. Sasuke gently licked her lower lip, asking for entrance. She parted her lips, and shuddered when his tongue touched her own. Sakura's hand reached his hairs, gripping them and encouraging him to continue. Sasuke's hands made their way towards Sakura's back pulling her closer to him. They enjoyed their passionate moment. Suddenly, Sasuke had an idea. He pulled apart and attacked Sakura's neck instead. His hands snaked inside her top.

"We can't do this Sasuke. The neighbors. They will hear us." said Sakura, alarmed. With a split of a second, they both disappeared from Sakura's house and teleported to the Uchiha complex.

"Now we don't have to worry about neighbors. We are all alone." said Sasuke with a smirk as he pushed her on his bed and started crawling on top of her.

**(A/N): I don't really know flower meanings. I used Wikipedia for that. And about the Purple Golden-eyed Primrose, I have no idea in what all places it grows. I only know about India so I put it. And I can't really describe fight scenes, so bare with me, please. **

**(A/N): This is my first story. Be nice to me. **** But flames accepted.**

**Review, review!**


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